ABSTRACT
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines jazz as ‘American music developed esp. from ragtime and blues and characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate distortions of pitch and timbre’ (1988:647). This definition appears to be a relatively straightforward entry until one examines the second definition: ‘empty talk: HUMBUG’. Empty talk? Humbug? To whom?
